Several groups rallied in front of the Presidential Office yesterday to protest China’s arrest and sentencing of dissident Xu Zhiyong (許志永), urging Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) to make an effort to push for his release during his upcoming visit to China.
Holding a banner that reads “freedom of speech, the citizen is innocent,” and singing the song Jasmine, dozens of people representing various human rights groups rallied in front of the monument dedicated to White Terror victims in front of the Presidential Office yesterday morning, showing their support for the imprisoned Chinese dissident, and calling on the government to join the rescue effort.
“What has happened to Xu is not an isolated case,” New School for Democracy secretary-general Wang Hsing-chung (王興中) said. “While [Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] may appear to be more liberal in his many reform policies, he is in fact more repressive toward civil rights movements than [Chinese leaders in] the past decades, since he took office about a year ago.”
Photo: Chien Jong-fung, Taipei Times
Wang said that since the beginning of the month, “as many as 24 prisoners of conscience have been detained, meaning that, on average, one political prisoner is ‘produced’ each day.”
He added that while Chinese citizens are unable to speak for themselves, it is important for Taiwanese to speak up for them.
Amnesty International Taiwan director Bo Tedards said Xu committed no crime, but merely defended freedom of expression and the rule of law, as every citizen should do.
“As President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] repeatedly said that he would stand by human rights values as laid out in the two international human rights covenants, he should ask Wang Yu-chi to speak up on human rights issues and call for the release of Xu and other dissidents when he [Wang] visits China next month,” Citizen Congress Watch executive director Chang Hung-lin (張宏林) said.
Taiwan Grassroots Alliance for Peace president Leon Chuang (莊豐嘉) said that it is dangerous to deal with a country without the protection of fundamental rights such as the freedom of expression.
“If Taiwan is to develop a peaceful and stable relationship [with China], the government should do its part in pushing for better protection of human rights in China,” Chuang said.
A Chinese court on Sunday sentenced Xu, who has long campaigned for rural children’s education and for officials to disclose their assets, to four years in prison.
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